ATTN: Cali nurses

Hi! I'm a nurse and I live in MA. This November we're voting on safe patient limits! At first I thought-- yes, of course! But after looking into it more, I don't know how to vote. 🤔 DH (dear husband) is also a nurse, he works in the ER. We're especially curious how it works there-- is your assignment constantly changing? Did it affect your ER wait times? Did it change your work schedule?

Comments (31)

We’ve had safe patient ratios since I’ve been working as a nurse so I don’t know how it changed when the laws went into effect. But I Like it the way it is. I work in ICU so I only have 2 patients max, sometimes 1 patient and sometimes 2 nurses to 1 patient. I used to work on MedSurg and the ratio was 1:5 unless the patient was on a cardiac monitor, then it was 1:4.

I have friends who work in the ER who say their assignment is constantly changing based on what kind of patient they get because they use the same ratio rules. So if they have 3 patients and a critical patient ends up rolling in then either they give up some of their patients or another nurse takes that critical patient.

I don’t think it affects scheduling. Some hospitals are 8 hours while others are 12 hour shifts.

We’ve had safe patient ratios since I’ve been working as a nurse so I don...

Posted
09/09/2018

We’ve had safe patient ratios since I’ve been working as a nurse so I don’t know how it changed when the laws went into effect. But I Like it the way it is. I work in ICU so I only have 2 patients max, sometimes 1 patient and sometimes 2 nurses to 1 patient. I used to work on MedSurg and the ratio was 1:5 unless the patient was on a cardiac monitor, then it was 1:4.

I have friends who work in the ER who say their assignment is constantly changing based on what kind of patient they get because they use the same ratio rules. So if they have 3 patients and a critical patient ends up rolling in then either they give up some of their patients or another nurse takes that critical patient.

I don’t think it affects scheduling. Some hospitals are 8 hours while others are 12 hour shifts.

I'm confused, so the alternative is unsafe patient loads? That seems bad....

Posted
09/10/2018

I'm confused, so the alternative is unsafe patient loads? That seems bad..

I'm nicu so obviously different than ER, but depending on acuity its 2:1 through 1:3. Sometimes our assignments change up with what's admitted but not often

There's a lot of propaganda against it saying it will increase hospital wait times, make 12 hr shifts unavailable, cost a fortune, take decision making abilities away from nurses, etc. We're curious if that's all coming from administrators who don't want to pay more nurses. But we're also wondering logistically how this actually works and what it looks like.

There's a lot of propaganda against it saying it will increase hospital w...

Posted
09/10/2018

There's a lot of propaganda against it saying it will increase hospital wait times, make 12 hr shifts unavailable, cost a fortune, take decision making abilities away from nurses, etc. We're curious if that's all coming from administrators who don't want to pay more nurses. But we're also wondering logistically how this actually works and what it looks like.

To me that just sounds like safer patient care.

At my hospital everyone works 12 hour shifts. Most hospitals in the area seem to be going that way. I'm not sure about wait times because we dont really deal.with that aspect. But I know if I'm in the ER with my kid I'd rather wait an extra hour than have something missed by an overloaded nurse. I certainly havent had it affect my decision making ability?

I’m not a nurse, but my nurse friends are the ones telling me the proposed law is going to be an issue. It seems like they are comfortable with the ratios and protocols in their hospitals, can speak up/team up when needed, and want to keep a little bit of professional decision-making involved on the issue of ratios.

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